"Do it fast. I have someone bringing up a guy who is infected and hasn’t had a fever yet, at all. No fever and no sickness. He's been incubated for seven days and nothing. They found him on the road in, bite marks and all. You want in on this one?"
Bernie twitches his head, "No. I'm going to take her and bury her. I know where her family was buried."
"Okay. Goodnight."
Bernie nods, "Night, Michael."
My heartbeat picks up. His voice and way of speaking, is exactly the same as my dad's was. I'm frozen. I turn and watch the lights flash as the person walks to the door. Another set of lights do the same. They meet in the middle and leave together.
Bernie sighs, "We have to be fast. I've drugged the shit out of her. She can't talk anyway, but this is stopping her from using any of her muscles." He grins and wipes his face, "It's an old-fashioned date-rape drug."
I scowl.
He shrugs, "I never made it for that purpose. People took it to get high. I sold it in high school. It's how the CIA found me. I was in ninth grade, doing twelfth-grade courses and building a science lab in my basement."
He walks and I follow him. We meet up with Will and Al. Al gives Bernie a nod. They seem to dislike each other.
Will looks savage, "Where is she?"
Bernie shakes his head, "Calm down. You can spazz when we're out of the city." He scans a door and opens it. Anna is lying on the table in a white gown. Her legs and arms are tied to the table. She doesn’t move at all.
I claw at the restraints. Will scoops her up, hugging her tightly to his body.
We turn and run from the room. I take his gun and move slightly, except of course for the lights. I look back at Bernie, "Stupid lights!"
He shakes his head and sighs. We get to the stairwell but Al points, "Let's take the ones on the other side. No one uses them."
We run after him and start down the stairs.
"I can't believe you've had her for a week. What the fuck, Bern?"
His voice is high pitch, "I had no choice." I think he's lying. I'm going to gut him when we are out of the city.
We enter a hall I never saw before. Al leads us. The lights flash above, making me agro. The warm summer air hits us like a wall, as we leave the building through a side door. Will breaks into a run through the alley. When he gets to a dark corner he stops. I'm surveying constantly.
"Al, go with Bernie and get the truck. We'll wait here," Will growls. He bends and looks at his sister, "What's wrong with her?"
Bernie shakes his head, "She's drugged. I secretly was drugging her. It comes across as brain damage but it’s the drugs."
Will scowls, "They don’t check for drugs in her blood."
He shakes his head, "Only the first day they have her. They ran it but her fever was still really high. I started drugging her as the fever broke."
Will nods, "Hurry up."
I brush her hair out of her face, "He said she can't talk at all."
Will frowns, "At all?"
I shake my head, "It probably destroyed her voice box, like it does to the infected."
He kisses her forehead, "I hope that’s all that’s wrong with her."
I look around, "Security is loose here."
He nods, "I know. They're cocky and relaxed. They think the walls and the guards keep them safe."
I tap my foot, "It would be easy to destroy it."
"Yup."
I squat next to him in the dark and wait.
When I hear a truck, I go look. Bernie grins at me from the driver's seat. Al hops out and opens the door. We climb in fast and head for the guards with Anna on the floor of the truck, under mine and Will's feet.
Chapter Fifteen
On the tenth whistle, he comes running out of the woods. I put my hands on my hips and he drops the rabbit in his lips.
He jumps into the back of the truck. I climb back there and sit with my back against the back window. The wind in my hair and his fur in my fingers makes me feel like things might be all right again.
I'm scared that we'll get to Bernie's and Jake and Star will be dead or gone, taken. I'm scared a lot now. My ‘us’ is too big and I can't keep them all safe. I lean on Leo and remember how easy it was when he was my ‘us’.
When we get there, my worst fears come true—Bernie's house is ransacked.
He drops to his knees when he sees it. Anna is still sleeping in the backseat of the truck. I run throughout the house. Every drawer is pulled, every bit of furniture is sliced and pulled apart. It looks like the raids that used to happen in the beginning, when people's houses still had things. It happens less now; everything has either been blown up or picked apart.
Bernie rocks back and forth. I see the millions of things floating by in his eyes. He looks at me and I see it. The blame.
"Where is the shelter?" I ask.
He wants to tell me to go screw myself—I see it in his eyes. Instead he points at the kitchen, "The cupboard beside the fridge has a latch inside of it. it opens a door."
I run there. I open the cupboard and feel around. The latch is well hidden. I press it and release the cupboard. I run down the stairs. My throat pulsates like my heart is beating in there.
I bang on the steel door at the bottom, "Jake! Star!"
I bang and cry out again, "Guys! It's Emma!" Leo is next to me clawing at the door.
It opens with a hard bang and a loud creak. Jake looks confused, "Are they gone?"I nod, "I guess. Who was it?"
He swallows, "Marshall." He hands me my bow.
"He's awake?"
Jake nods, "Yeah. And apparently he followed Star here once or twice. He knew exactly how to get here. He called for us all. He had military men with him."
Star looks scared, "Is my brother with you?"
I nod. She smiles, "Is Anna okay?"
I shake my head and turn and run up the stairs. Bernie is still crying about his house. He's annoying me to the point, I want to kill him. I grip my bow and storm to the truck.
Will is circling the house, "No one is here."
I look at the woods, "It's Marshall and the military."
Al shakes his head, "He would never."
I snarl, "NOT EVEN FOR A FREE PASS TO LIVE IN THE CITY WITH HIS DIABETES?"
He stops, "I don’t know about that."
I stomp around, pacing, "What if he knows about my cabin? What if Sarah, Meg and Mary are in danger? What if he sold out everyone at the camps?" I point at Allan, "What if he told them, where we were going?"
Will grabs my arm, shaking me, "STOP! THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!"
I jerk free, "YOU STOP! I'M NOT GOING BACK TO SPOKANE!"
"YOU DRIVE ME INSANE SOMETIMES!"
I glare at him, "LIKEWISE!"
He runs his hands through his hair roughly and takes deep breaths, "The camps are probably in danger. There isn’t anything we can do about that. Not right now. The cabin is, more than likely, fine."
Leo is back and nudging me. He whines. I look at Anna sitting up in the backseat. She waves, but her eyes are almost dead inside. She looks sick still.
I jump at her. She wraps around me as Will wraps around us. Jake comes running out shouting, Anna!" He attacks too. I'm being squished into her. She shakes but no sounds come from her, not even the weird squeak.
She gives me a look.
I kiss her cheek, "I'm sorry." She shakes her head.
We all step back to give her air and Jake scoops her up. She hugs him tight, as silent tears slip down her cheeks. I can't believe she's alive. I don’t even care how alive, which is selfish.
Leo jumps on Jake, wrapping his paws around her.
She struggles from Jake and lets Leo fully hug her.
"That’s a very unique animal, Lainy."
I glance at Al and smile, "My name is Emma."
He frowns, "Oh."
Will gives me a shitty look. I return it, "What's the plan?"
He shakes his head. "I don’t know. Do we risk going to the cabin, and leading them there, or do we head to a camp, and try to get as many people as we can? Or do we just take the city the way we are, with whatever bombs we can get Bernie to make?"
I scratch my head, "I don't know. But we can't stay here."
Will grins bitterly, "Guess it’s the stars for us tonight?"
I nod and head inside to find salvageable items.
Bernie sits in the backseat with Leo and me as we drive away from his beautiful mansion.
I glance at him and shrug, "I know how your feel."
He gives me a blank stare.
I nod, "I do. I was once faced with a similar choice with them…I helped them and my whole world has fallen apart."
He sighs, "I guess you do then. At least everyone is still alive."
I look back through the window at the ghostly girl in the white nightgown who used to be my best friend, and nod. It doesn't feel like she is though.
We drive to the base of the mountain where the farmhouse is, and start the hike into the woods. Bernie looks back at the truck and makes a moan.
Will pats him on the back.
Jake carries Anna.
I look out at the broken-down vehicles and rubble, "My dad is down there somewhere." The mountainside we are on, is the hill I ran. Flashes of the branches hitting me in the face and screams trapped in my throat fly through my mind.
I look at bones of the cars and turn away.
Will takes my hand in his, pulling me up the hill.
Gripping to him feels like he's an anchor for me, grounding me to this life. I should be grateful for this moment; Anna is alive, Jake is alive and giving Star his charming smile, Will is holding my hand, giving me more than he can imagine. More than I ever imagined, I would have.
Leo gives me a look. I smirk and pass my gun to Will. I pull my quiver and bow and run up ahead with him. We move through the woods like always. Listening to the sounds of the creatures—the sounds they give for the warnings.